Excel Farms pays more than $100 million for Cherylton Farms in Western Australia

A prominent Victorian farming family has teamed up with a Canadian investor to buy a blue-ribbon mixed-farming operation in Western Australia. Read all the details.

A prominent Victorian farming family and a Canadian investor have snapped up a large mixed-farming operation in Western Australia.

Excel Farms, operated by Nick Paterson – the son of prominent Western District landholders and ACE Radio founders Rowly and Judy Paterson – has paid more than $100 million for the 8554-hectare Cherylton Farms operation near Kojonup in Western Australia’s Great Southern Region.

Excel Farms – which was founded in 2020 and has quickly put together a large portfolio of mixed-farming properties in Victoria’s Wimmera, Mallee and Western District regions, as well as on South Australia’s Limestone Coast – is backed by Canada’s Fiera Comox Partners.

Excel Farms’ Nick Paterson.

Fiera Comox owns more than 2.02 million hectares of farmland globally, including in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and according to its website has a strategy is to build “a diversified global portfolio of assets … generating stable, attractive returns over the long-term for investors”.

The sale, conducted by rural property specialists LAWD, was on a walk-in, walk-out basis following a sales campaign which generated interest from local, national and international parties.

Cherylton Farms spans 8554ha in southern Western Australia.

Cherylton Farms’ existing operations include diversified cropping and livestock grazing, focused on the production of high-yielding cereal and oilseed crops, as well as Merino and composite sheep flocks.

LAWD senior director Danny Thomas said Cherylton Farms’ sale price reflected a broader trend of large investors seeking agricultural assets that offered quality and scale in Western Australia.

“We have seen both direct foreign investors and domestic institutions recognise the significant value offered in WA in comparison to east coast Australia and overseas land markets,” Mr Thomas said.

Meanwhile, retail billionaire Brett Blundy has listed his one million-hectare Beetaloo Aggregation in the Northern Territory for sale for more than $300 million.

Mr Blundy, who owns Beetaloo with business partners Jane and Scotty Armstrong, is also selling the one-million hectare Walhallow Aggregation for more than $250 million, after negotiations with a buyer fell through late last year.

The Beetaloo and Walhallow sales are being managed by Colliers Agribusiness.